Set my Sherry free.

Dear sherry-lovers, wine enthusiasts, members of the trade and press, LCBO and government officials, listen up.  There is a problem with sherry. Or rather, with the way we get sherry into our market. And I would like you to pay attention.

One look at the sherry category at the LCBO and a couple of things become clear:

1. There is a lot of “sweet” sherry (Harvey’s Bristol Cream, Dry Sack are (by far) the largest brands), 2. The prices are generally always below $20 and often below $15 and 3. We hardly ever see sherries at “higher” prices or with age statements (VOS, VORS; 20 year old or 30 year old) or, in other words, the really good stuff.

The relative value of sherry is indisputable. There is a reason, however, why we don’t see any “higher end”, rare, older or unique sherries all that often. First, and foremost the LCBO will argue, the market for those products simply does not exist or is too small. While I am starting to see a different picture emerge, in cities like New York and London, and even slowly in Toronto, by and large the LCBO is right.  But what comes first? How can there be a market if the product is never available?

Another, maybe more important, reason for not seeing these sherries here (on store shelves, but also in restaurants through consignment or private stock) is this: our reputation precedes us. Sherry producers, a relatively small group, know of the LCBO and the difficulties of getting in the market. And a large part has to do with our laboratory analysis procedures. Not just the cost involved ($175, soon to go up to $200 per sku per vintage, not a small amount on any order), but the stringency of the rules and the way which they are enforced. Most producers simply don’t want to ship their rare and expensive sherries here only to see them languish in the lab, subjected to fees and, in worst cases, see them destroyed because of failed lab analysis.  This is a rare occurrence, but it has happened – suppliers have the option of having the goods returned to them, at their cost. Why take the chance?

And for us agents it’s the same. Why should we spend our time navigating the rules, dealing with the lab, not to mention the small margins on products like this. We simply won’t bother. And therefore you, the consumers, lose.

But shouldn’t it be about choice? Consumers should at least have the opportunity to try these wines and decide for themselves whether they want to buy them or not. Let the market decide if there is a market.

As with all food-stuffs, wine is subject to a large set of regulations and chemical thresholds as set by the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) with the ultimate goal of keeping us all safe and healthy.  Each province enforces these regulations in their own way. For us in Ontario, we know that the LCBO takes its job very seriously and tests a bottle of every single wine, sherry or spirit once it arrives.

What is exactly the problem with older sherries?  It is twofold: due to the very nature of the product, the aging in very old casks in a solera system where small amounts of wine from every single vintage are present in the final wine. Old sherries are in fact very old.  VOS (20 years) and VORS (30 years) are at least as old as the classification states. But some sherries are even older than that. Evaporation of mainly water, quite high in Jerez (in some cases as high as 5 or 6% per year), concentrates all compounds in the wine, not just alcohol or volatile acidity, also the potential “harmful ones”. Secondly, producers like Equipo Navazos and Bodegas Tradicion (and several others) will not subject their wines to aggressive filtration and clarification, believing that with the bad you take out the good. The idea is to preserve the authenticity, to show the sherry as it exists in the cask.

The most worrisome of these chemicals, the one that causes the most concern in terms of exceeding the stated limits, is ethyl carbamate. Ethyl carbamate, sometimes referred to as urethane, is a chemical compound that forms from the reaction of alcohol with urea, a compound formed by the metabolism of certain organic compounds by yeasts. Urea has been commercially produced for use in fertilizers. Products obtained by ways of fermentation, such as alcoholic beverages but also breads and soy products contain traces of ethyl carbamate. Studies have shown that ethyl carbamate is “probably carcinogenic to humans”. This is where the problem lies.  But I am not a bio-chemist. It is not my purpose to explain exactly what ethyl carbamate is or where it comes from or how it ends up in sherry.

The crux of the matter is what level is a safe level and when it goes over that threshold what happens? Since I am also not a health professional, I can only use logic and go by communication I’ve had with CFIA specialists in addition to anecdotal evidence. It seems that, by any standard, exposure from consuming sherry at a “normal rate” is not harmful. One would need to drink extreme amounts of sherry to be effected by the ethyl carbamate. Likely, one would succumb to alcohol poisoning before that. Different threshold levels exist for ethyl carbamate in different categories of alcohol. For instance, the limit for saké is twice that of sherry and four times for fruit spirits, presumably based on the (flawed) logic that the stronger the beverage, the less one would consume at any given time.

I am happy I am protected by a government that looks after my safety. The problem with limits is that they are often arbitrarily set (in the past) and don’t necessarily reflect what goes on in the real world anymore. So while my sherries are routinely flagged and stopped at the lab for levels exceeding the guidelines, not just of ethyl carbamate but also sometimes copper, it seems the rest of the world can freely enjoy these products, and be no worse for wear.

It seems it would be very hard to prove if any particular illness is associated to over-consumption of sherry due to extreme exposure to ethyl carbamate or copper. I have found no documented cases of any incidences of ethyl carbamate poisoning. I also have found no standards for ethyl carbamate in sherry or fortified wine in other markets such as the US, the UK or the EU. I have spoken to suppliers and agents in these markets and none have ever experienced problems importing or selling sherries due to regulations on ethyl carbamate. And in Alberta or BC, sherries seem to freely enter the market, even though they are governed by the same federal guidelines of the CFIA.

While I have to point out that there is an exception level for “rare sherries” that exceed a certain price and are imported in less than 200 cases per year, it still presents a huge barrier.  Many producers and agents simply won’t bother. The LCBO, and CFIA, have granted exception to sherries that fit within this exemption category, but every time we have to go through the same process. Add another compound that exceeds a threshold, like copper for instance, and you really do have a problem. The CFIA has a really clinical way of looking at it: since most sherries in the market currently have ethyl carbamate levels below the threshold, it is therefore reasonable to say that all sherries could have ethyl carbamate below the threshold. A very simplistic way of looking at it indeed. Since the rare, older sherries hardly ever get imported, and the sherries that do are younger, filtered and clarified products, we are comparing apples and oranges. Like wine, or any other product, not all sherries are created equal.

These sherries are produced by bodegas of the highest repute (for instance Equipo Navazos, Bodegas Tradicion, Gonzalez-Byass, Lustau and others). Some have been around for over a hundred years and their products are sold in many countries without any problems.  It’s not like they were produced using a dodgy process in somebody’s shed with suspect equipment. These are historical products with a real pedigree and a following.  Can we please make these rules a little more relaxed and use them in the right spirit – pun intended?

While I’d like to keep bringing in these sherries and keep challenging the rules, I hope consumers and other agents will feel comfortable communicating their interest in these special, unique products. We Ontarians shouldn’t be excluded up front from experiencing these fine wines simply because a certain rule sets the bar too high.

I am not suggesting such standards shouldn’t exist. I am not even suggesting we shouldn’t test. But can’t we be more open-minded and pick our battles? Is the CFIA really suggesting that sherries with age are bad for us? That we can’t be allowed to drink them?

We should be safe, but must we be coddled?

Set my Sherry free.

Any Palomino is a pall o’ mine

Palomino Fino is synonymous with sherry.

But what about Palomino, this grape variety that is responsible for the drink I so adore?  Can you make other wines with it?

Large bunches, loose clusters and moderately large grapes that can yield well in dry conditions. Often described as a “neutral” grape variety that on its own is low in acid and natural sugar that results in moderate alcohol between 11 and 12.5% and that produces wine that is bland and uninteresting.  But that’s ok with sherry producers. The interesting flavours of sherry are mostly derived from aging under flor or through oxidative aging.

While the vast majority of Palomino is grown in Andalucía, where it is originally from, it is grown in a few other regions of (northern) Spain and in the south of France. In most other regions the grape is on the wane and even in Jerez and surroundings there is a slight decline.

(If you want to know more about the history of Palomino, or about its family tree, what better place to look than in this book I recently bought; the new tome by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and Jose Vouillamoz “Wine Grapes” www.winegrapes.org  So beautiful, so heavy, so completely geeky, I love it!)

So does Palomino only get used in sherry? Not exactly.

While the vast majority of Palomino grown is used in sherry, there are table wines that are made of the variety as well.

In fact, the largest selling white wine in Spain (over 5,000,000 bottles per year) is a wine that is 100% Palomino: Barbadillo’s Castillo de San Diego.  Classified as a Vino de la Tierra de Cadiz, this is an in-expensive, simple quaffer. Light, fruity and just right when sitting down on a hot afternoon when exploring the sites of Andalucía.  Barbadillo even produces a sparkling wine, the first in Andalucía, called Beta, a blend of Palomino and Chardonnay.  If you have so much of it, you might as well use it.

Perhaps a much more interesting example of a dry table wine is Navazos-Niepoort.  This wine, a collaboration between sherry-negociant Equipo Navazos and Douro winemaker Dirk Niepoort, is essentially a sherry in the making. This is a (Palomino) base wine from a good albariza-soil vineyard that has been fermented in butt and that has been exposed to flor for 5 months or so, without fortification. The pedigree of the wine is impressive: it comes from the Valdespino bodega in Jerez and it’s the same wine used for its barrel-fermented fino Inocente. This could actually be how the wines were traditionally made in the region, before fortification became the norm. A complex wine, showing the influence of the flor it is actually a great food match, best served slightly chilled. If you want to try it, soon several great restaurants in Toronto will be adding this wine to their lists – but more on that to come in a future post.

 So you see, any Palomino is a pall of mine!

Sherry and the Holidays

Sherry as an aperitif or cocktail? Of course! With turkey? Absolutely! And with dessert? Naturally!

Sherry will feature prominently around my house over the holidays. Not only is a fresh glass of manzanilla a favourite when I’m cooking, sherries will go very well with the dishes I will be preparing.

As with all wine, gaining an appreciation is all about experimenting. If you have started to get the hang of sherry, start expanding and try it with food at the dinner table instead of “regular” wine.  I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised by some of the matches. As I have said before, sherry is quite possibly one of the most versatile wines to pair with food.

So what could your Sherry-paired Holiday feast look like:

You will probably feel like a refreshing cocktail after spending all those hours in a hot kitchen. Try a Rebujito: a traditional drink from Andalucia, Sherry-country, a very refreshing mix of manzanilla or fino sherry with Sprite or 7-up in a tall glass filled with ice. Usually 50-50 but mix it according to your taste. Great in the summertime, but why not year-round?

Of course a manzanilla (Barbadillo Solear #290734 $14.95) or fino (Gonzalez-Byass Tio Pepe #231829 $15.10) are great on their own, served chilled with appetizers, like cured hams, olives, shrimp or anything deep-fried. Solear and Tio Pepe are readily available at the LCBO at the moment.

And now for the turkey. Amontillado is the way to go here, although a palo cortado would be quite nice as well.  Combining the aromas from the period the wine spent under flor with the character that is derived from its oxidative ageing period, Amontillado is a special and distinctive wine. I love the delicate nose of hazelnuts and citrus fruit, often with hints of wood and spices, with the long flavours of nut and dried fruit on the palate. This will go very well with the turkey with stuffing, whether you have a sweeter stuffing with apples, for instance, or a more savoury stuffing based on sage and other herbs. A very nice amontillado still available at the LCBO is Marques de Real Tesoro, Amontillado del Principe Muy Viejo (726893, $19.95).

For dessert? One of my absolute favourite desserts of all-time is a glass of rich PX sherry served with and then poured over a small bowl of vanilla ice cream, with or without some raisins sprinkled on top. Try it. This is absolutely heaven. While I enjoy it with a richer PX with a little bit of age, even younger versions will do very nicely. You may still be able to find a bottle of Gonzalez-Byass Nectar Pedro Ximenez Dulce (# 87577 $18.95) or Osborne Pedro Ximenez 1927 (47944 $17.95) at Vintages. I think your guests will be very impressed by this simple yet complete dessert. No Yule log for me, this is what I’ll be having…

Enjoy, Merry Christmas!

Disclaimer: through The Vine I represent the sherries of Barbadillo, so in this case Solear.  The second photograph is courtesy of the Consejo Regulador of Jerez.

Sherry Tastings – A Tale of Two Cities

Is Sherry’s popularity on the rise?  A Sherry Revolution?  If you go by the scope and success of two recent tastings in London (UK) and New York City, then absolutely.

I was lucky enough to score invitations to recent events held, for trade only, in London (UK) in September and in New York City in October.  Both events were co-hosted by the Consejo Regulador of Sherry, together with local institutes and enthusiasts. The events were aimed at showcasing the diverse style and versatility of Sherry, a fortified wine.

The Great Sherry Tasting – London (UK), Monday, September 17, 2012

Hosted by the Sherry Institute of Spain, the tasting was designed to “showcase the largest collection of sherries in the UK.”  A whopping 146 different sherries from 23 different producers were lined up in a “pour it yourself” set up, arranged by style. To me, this was just perfect. This really provided one with the opportunity to compare styles of sherry and the variations of the different products within the style. All styles were featured: Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Pedro Ximinez (PX) and Moscatel, as well as a variety of aged dated (VOS -20 year old and VORS -30 year old) sherries and blended sweet styles such as Creams.

In addition, this was also an opportunity to introduce the newly-elected President of the Consejo Regulador, Mr. Beltran Domecq to the UK trade.  Mr. Domecq facilitated two seminars during the day, on biologically aged sherries (Manzanilla, Fino and Amontillados) and oxidatively or “traditionally” aged sherries (Palo Cortado, Oloroso, PX).  A very successful day in the eyes of the organizers and Mr. Domecq alike,  with approximately 160 members of the trade and press coming out to taste sherry on a beautiful fall  (Monday) morning in London.

While a function of familiarity, it seemed to me that most of the better known bodegas generally showed the best: Gonzalez-Byass, Lustau, Barbadillo however  some relative newcomers were pretty impressive as well:  Tradicion and Equipo Navazos.  If I had to pick one wine that stood out for me, it would be Osborne, Capuchino VORS Palo Cortado, 30 years old, extremely complex, concentrated with a nutty and orange peel finish that just went on forever.

Sherryfest, New York City, October 22-24, 2012

Organized by Peter Liem, wine writer, and Rosemary Gray, sommelier and event coordinator, with the support of the Consejo Regulador, this event spanned over several days and while the Grand Tasting was for trade only, the dinners and seminars were open to the public as well.  Well organized and promoted, (www.sherryfest.com) this event was probably the largest and best attended sherry event ever held (outside Spain, for sure).  While I don’t have the exact numbers, the Grand Tasting alone on Monday morning at the Ace Hotel was attended by 450 or so trade folk and press, divided in three sessions during the course of the day.  Here, the tasting was set up by producer, which made it harder to taste style-by-style as I had initially intended to do.  It was a bit crowded at times, but all producers (20 or so) were represented by either principals or representatives of the bodega. Several seminars and producer dinners were held over the course of several days, providing an opportunity to also experience the great virtues of sherry and food together.

Highlights of the tasting were the Palmas range of sherries by Gonzalez-Byass, the sherries by Rey Fernando de Castillo and my choice for top sherry was the Oloroso Emperatriz Eugenia by Lustau, a very dark, almost tea-like Oloroso of incredible complexity, smoothness and length.

I attended a dinner at Pata Negra in the East Village, a tiny tapas-style restaurant that served absolutely delightful tapas paired with the wines of Barbadillo and Emilio Hidalgo. A perfect opportunity to show off the quintessential match of tapas  and sherry.

No doubt, in New York City sherry is hot – especially the dry styles. More and more restaurants are featuring sherries by the glass and more and more sommeliers and consumers alike are getting it and pairing it with food. There was a lot of buzz around the event with a number of wine merchants/stores getting in on the action by offering free tastes of sherry in their stores on Saturday. With a bustling restaurant scene, the future for sherry here seems secure .

Last but not least, I wanted to bring some attention to the new sherry book that was launched on the Sunday. It is by Peter Liem and co-authored by Jesus Barquin of Equipo Navazos.  “Sherry, Manzanilla & Montilla. A guide to the tradional wines of Andalucia.” It is not only the best book on sherry to have been published in quite a long time, it is the only new book published on the topic in quite some time. Eloquently written, it tells you what you need to know about sherry, but with a modern take on it, challenging perhaps some overly traditional beliefs while placing sherry in the proper context to hopefully appeal to a broader, and much younger, consumer.  Well done! The book is currently only for sale on www.sherryguide.net

And, finally, what about us here in Toronto?  Our agency was the lucky beneficiary of Sherryfest in New York:  Jesus Barquin, founder of Equipo Navazos was able to fly up to Toronto and join us for a new release tasting and a sherry dinner featuring the sherries of Equipo Navazos.  From my point of view, as an agent and seller of sherries as well as an interested consumer, I think we are seeing a small grassroots interest in sherries starting to take hold. Several top restaurants are featuring sherries by the glass and are matching them with food on their menu. Small steps, for sure, but what about a Toronto Sherryfest in 2014?

This is white wine.

A Manifesto for Sherry.

“Would you like to try this white wine,” I ask. “It will go great with your olives.” “Of course,” you reply, always open-minded about trying a new wine.

So far so good. Now let’s try this one:

“Would you like to try this sherry,” I ask. “It will go great with your olives.” You look at me as if I come from Mars, snort derisively, and, with thoughts of your blue-haired grandmother sipping on her sweet drink of choice in a tiny glass, you answer: “No, I don’t like sherry. What white wine do you recommend?”

Sound familiar? All too often people don’t think of sherry as wine and they automatically assume it is sweet. Let’s explore this a bit further. Hailing from the south-west corner of Spain, centered by the town of Jerez, sherry is technically a fortified wine, made from a dry, white base wine obtained by fermenting (predominantly) the white-skinned Palomino Fino grape just like any other white wine. Based on the style the winemaker envisions, the wine is then fortified either a little (up to 15.5%) or a little bit more (up to 17%). You see… a white wine.

Some sherry is sweet. And it can be very good. But a lot of sherry is dry…bone dry. The base wine from the Palomino Fino grape is rather bland, low in acid and of moderate alcohol – around 12.5%.  Based on the quality and character of this wine, the winemaker will use the more elegant, more refined batches for ageing under flor, the special layer of yeast that gives finos and manzanillas their distinct flavour. Other batches are destined for oxidative ageing, becoming olorosos.

All sherries age in what is called the solera system. Simplified, picture this as rows and rows of barrels, stacked three or four high on top of each other, like you would see in any barrel cellar of a wine producer. The difference is that this is a system of fractional blending. The youngest wine goes in at the top (or youngest) level and the finished wine is removed from the bottom (the oldest) level for bottling.  All the while the wine is moved from level to level from young to old, continuously refreshing but also blending the wine. This continuous blending ensures a wine of consistent flavour and quality, but, in case of sherry ageing under flor replenishes the nutrients the yeasts required to live. All the barrels in a solera system for finos and manzanillas will have this layer of yeast on the top. A solera system for olorosos will not have the yeast, leaving the wine exposed to air and providing the oxidative quality the winemaker desires.

Fino and Manzanilla:  All finos and manzanillas (a type of fino, unique to the seaside town of Sanlucar de Barrameda) age under flor. Flor protects the wine underneath from exposure to oxygen. But the flor itself needs oxygen to live. In addition to oxygen, the flor consumes glycerin, which gives wine body and texture. The absence of this makes the wine feel very dry. In turn it imparts acetaldehydes to the wine, adding to the distinct character of these wines, its pungency, flavours of yeast, almonds, nut, brine and salt. Also, despite in absolute terms being high in alcohol (15%), these wines can be remarkably refreshing and they pair fantastically well with all kinds of fare, like seafood, tapas, olives, light soups, etc. At an average age of 3-5 years, these wines are of remarkable value. A good bottle can often be had for between $12 and $16.  A very good reason to love these wines.

Oloroso: this is the style of sherry that is aged without the flor, exposed constantly to oxygen and therefore evolving into a very different type of sherry. By fortifying the base wine to around 17%, it is ensured that the yeast, the flor, will not form. Under the constant influence of oxygen during its life in the solera system, these wines becoming darker, and flavours concentrate due to the evaporation of water. Caramel, hazelnuts and walnuts, together with orange marmalade and citrus elements, make these wines very complex. These wines too, are bone dry.

Amontillado and Palo Cortado: these are hybrid styles. When a fino or manzanilla ages, the flor layer that protects the wine can die off, either naturally or by choice (by adding some alcohol). At this point the wines continue their life exposed to oxygen. So these wines exhibit the delicate character and pungency of finos, enhanced with fuller body and caramel, hazelnut aromas of an oloroso. These wines can be very complex and long-lived. How about with a mushroom-risotto or consommé?

Sweet sherries: most often made from Pedro Ximenez grape (commonly referred to as PX), the grapes are left to dry in the sun and the base wine is very high in sugar. The wine will age in a solera system just like the other types of sherry. These wines can be enjoyed on their own, or they are used for blending with olorosos to make sherries that are called Cream or Medium, for instance. This is how the historically sweet sherries are made. Some of these can be very refined and have a place of their own, matching well with soft cheeses, nuts, fruit salad, or even on their own ‘on the rocks’ with a slice of orange.

Personally, I love a fino or manzanilla as an aperitif. And I love to cook with it too: chicken sautéed in fino or amontillado in a sauce with pork tenderloin, for instance. Or a sweet PX sherry drizzled over vanilla ice cream as a dessert. And always treat your sherry as a white wine – serve it in a proper white wine glass, never the small tasting glass-sized copitas.

While still a hand-sell in most restaurants, it requires confident, knowledgeable and passionate staff to proclaim the virtues of these wines, by themselves or with food. Due to their complex range of flavours and (often) dry character, sherries can stand up against types of foods that would normally overpower regular wines. Think of salads with vinegar-based dressings, asparagus, artichokes, but also more traditional wine-dishes like seafood platters or braised beef dishes. But wines they are, and they should be presented and sold as such, served in a proper glass and never as an afterthought. Outside of its home market of Spain, we are seeing a growing trend of sherry in bars and restaurants in London (UK), New York and now also in Toronto.  A lot of sommeliers and chefs get it: sherry is cool!

The different styles of sherry each have unique and distinct aromas and flavours and they deserve a place on every wine list. While high-end sherries can be expensive, they would often represent much better value than a regular wine of similar age. Bottles of sherries over $50 are in fact rare, and a versatile, comprehensive list can be put together at reasonable prices. Combine the relative value of these wines with their uniqueness in terms of styles, and you have something surely everyone interested in food and wine would love to try. And if you are ever at a loss of what to serve with your sherry of choice, remember the following guideline: “If it swims, serve a fino (or manzanilla); if it flies, serve amontillado; if it runs, serve an oloroso.”  I promise you will never go wrong.

“Would you like to try this new wine we have? I think it will go great with your olives. It’s a manzanilla from Spain and it is very complex, yet refreshing. It’s unique, but I’m sure you’ll love it.” “Please, I would love to try something different.”

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